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HIST424 – South Asia & China: Connections & Comparisions
Spring 2015‐2016
Instructor Dr. Ayesha Jalal (TUFTS) & Dr. Hassan Karrar
Room No. Room No. 218, New SS Wing
Office Hours TBA
Email hkarrar@lums.edu.pk
Telephone
COURSE BASICS
Credit Hours 4
Lecture(s) 2 lectures per Duration 1hr 50mins
week
Recitation/Lab (per Nbr of Lec(s) Per Duration
week) Week
Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Duration
Week
COURSE DESCRIPTION
“Asia is one,” Okakura Kakuzo (1862‐1913) famously proclaimed in the opening of Ideals of the East with
Special Reference to the Art of Japan (1903). A critic of Western imperialism, Okakura identified cultural
convergence in the “two mighty civilizations” of Asia, “Confucian” China, and “Vedic” India that shared, “[a]
broad expanse of love for the Ultimate and Universal … the common thought‐inheritance of every Asiatic race.”
This ideal of Asian oneness found little traction over the course of the twentieth century. Soon after Okakura,
unitary Asia would become synonymous with pan‐Asian of the inter‐war years, which itself became
euphemistic for Japanese imperialism, and justly criticized. In South and East Asia, the emergence of new states
in the mid‐twentieth century, notably India and Pakistan (1947) and the People’s Republic of China (1949), saw
sharp demarcations of historically discursive Himalayan boundaries (in the case of China and Pakistan), or
bitter conflict (in the case of China and India). The onset of the Cold War also saw the emergence of area
studies programs in the Western academy that compartmentalized “Asia” – itself a European category – into
rigid pedagogical categories: Central, East, West and South Asia. Far from being one, the twentieth century
drew sharp lines through Asia.
The onset of globalization after the Cold War triggered an unprecedented circulation of people, merchandise,
and capital, creating an opportune movement to revisit the historical convergences and divergences in Asia’s
most populous regions, China and South Asia that make up two fifths of the world’s population. Coupled with
their surging economies, and an increasing prominence in global affairs, China and its neighboring South Asian
countries are set to play an increasingly important role in the twenty‐first century, making this an ideal moment
to ask: to what extent did China and South Asia follow similar paths over the last two thousand years? How did
the economic, political and social history of the two states different? What were the points of convergence,
during which the two sides crossed Okakura’s “Himalayan divide”?
This senior research seminar will explore the historical connections between South Asia and China and place
their historiographies into creative dialogue. Thematically organized, the aim is to encourage students in two
connected classrooms across the world – one at Tufts and the other at the Lahore University of Management
Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan – to think about the intertwined histories of these two regions within a global
Lahore University of Management Sciences
context. Staring with a quick overview of the pre‐modern and early modern history of India and China, the
focus will be on their distinctive but comparable encounters with Western colonialism from the mid‐
eighteenth to the mid‐twentieth centuries. The final segment of the course will be devoted to an examination
of the ways in which South Asia and China have negotiated the challenges of the post‐colonial era and how
this will shape the future global balance of power.
Students are expected to take an active part in class discussions and must read before class in order to
participate meaningfully in some of the major debates in South Asian and Chinese history and historiography.
GRADING
1. 20% class discussion and small assignments (including ice‐breaker and occasional blog entries)
2. 20% group project – video essay
3. 20% short paper of ten double‐spaced typed pages with pre‐approved topic
4. 40% final paper of twenty double‐spaced typed pages (due on the last day of class)
REQUIRED TEXTS
1. Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (third
edition)
2. Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China (third edition)
3. The Spence volume has been assigned as a reference volume. Although no pages have been
assigned from the Spence volume in the reading list below, you will find it to be a useful
companion from session 4 onwards. Both required texts for the course can be purchased at the
Tufts Bookstore. All other readings will be available on Trunk.
SESSIONS
*Denotes Recommended Reading
Jan. 27: Introduction
Prasenjit Duara, “Asia Redux: Conceptualizing a Region for Our Times.” Journal of Asian Studies 69, 2010,
no. 4: 963‐983.
Feb. 3: Ancient 'Civilizations' and Knowledge Networks
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, chs. 1 and 2
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Tamara Chin, Savage Exchange: Han Imperialism, Chinese Literary Style, and the Economic Imagination,
xx‐yy
*Valerie Hansen, Valerie. 2012. The Silk Road: A New History, 3‐24
Feb. 10: India, China and the Islamic World, Seventh to the Fourteenth Century
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 3
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Jonathan N. Lipman, Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China, 24‐57
Hyunhee Park, Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds, conclusion
*Sen, Tansen. 2003. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino‐Indian Relations, 600‐
1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1‐54
Feb. 17: Mughal and Ming Empires: a Comparative Perspective
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 4
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Timothy Brook, Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China, 153‐237.
*Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China Honolulu:
University of Hawai’i Press, 8‐39
Feb. 24: Center and Region in the Eighteenth Century: Comparisons and Contrasts
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 5‐6
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Matthew W. Mosca, From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Transformation
of Geopolitics in Qing China
Laura J. Newby 2005. The Empire and the Khanate: A Political History of Qing Relations with Khoqand c.
1760‐1860, 21‐44
Peter Perdue, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia, 547‐555
Mar. 2: The Opium Connection: Imperial Wars and Resistance
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 7‐8
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Gregory Blue, “Opium for China: The British Connection.” in Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan,
1839‐1952, edited by Timothy Brook and Tadashi Wakabayashi, 31‐54
Christopher Munn, “The Hong Kong Opium Revenue, 1845‐1885” in Opium Regimes, 105‐126
James Hevia, English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth‐Century China, 1‐48
Jesse S. Palsetia, “The Parsis of India and the Opium Trade in China,” Contemporary Drug Problems, 35
*Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies; River of Smoke or Flood of Fire
Mar. 9: Mid‐Nineteenth Century Rebellions: Peasants, Muslims and State Power
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 9
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Hodong Kim, Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion in Chinese Central Asia, 1864‐1877
Newby, The Empire and the Khanate, 73‐123
*William Dalrymple, The Last Mughal, ch. 4
*Film: Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players – to be seen this week at
http://tischmcvodportal.library.tufts.edu/launch/TheChessPlayers
Mar. 16: Boxer Rebellion and the Indian Imperial Connection
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 10
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
C. A. Bayly, “The Boxer Uprising and India: Globalizing Myths” in The Boxers, China and the World, edited
by Robert Bickers and R. G. Tiedemann, 147‐156
Anand A. Yang, “(A) Subaltern(‘s) Boxers: An Indian Soldier’s Account of China and the World.” In The
Boxers, China and the World, 43‐64
Mar. 30: Imperial Geopolitics and Asian Nationalisms: 1905 to 1919
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 11
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Arif Dirlik, The Origins of Chinese Communism, 19‐54
Pankaj Mishra, From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia, 124‐
183
Apr. 6: Masses in Politics: Gandhi and Mao in the Inter‐War Period
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, chs. 12‐14
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Arif Dirlik, The Origins of Chinese Communism, 57‐94
Rebecca Karl, Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth Century: A Concise History, 21‐ 50
Apr. 13: War and Famine in India and China: 1937 to 1945
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 15
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Karl, Mao Zedong and China, 51‐72
Sugata Bose, “Starvation Amidst Plenty: the Making of Famine in Honan, Tonkin and Bengal, 1942‐1945”,
Modern Asian Studies, 1990
Selected primary sources
Apr. 20: “Transfer of Power” and Revolution, Partition and Civil War, 1945‐1949
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, chs. 16‐17
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Jalal, The Pity of Partition, pp.1‐28, 111‐137 and 141‐153
Vazira Zamindar, The Long Partition and the Making of South Asia, ch. 6
Selected primary sources
*Saadat Hasan Manto, Black Milk, pp.43‐46 or 129‐137
Apr. 27: Brothers, Enemies, Allies: Post‐Colonial India, Pakistan and China
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, ch. 18
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
John W. Garver, “China’s Decision for War with India in 1962” in New Directions in the Study of China’s
Foreign Policy, edited by Alaister Iain Johnston and Robert S. Ross, 86‐130
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Stephen Hoffmann, India and the China Crisis, pp. 9‐13, 163‐69, 196‐210, 224‐233
Neville Maxwell, “Sino‐Indian Border Dispute Reconsidered,” Economic and Political Weekly, 34, no.15:
905‐918.
Andrew Small, The China‐Pakistan Axis, ch. 1
May 4: The Rise of Asia? Sino‐South Asian Relations in the Twenty‐First Century
Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia, chs. 19‐20
Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China
Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, 65‐72
Thant Myint‐U, Where China Meets India, 317‐335